


Hungry?

by crackersme



Category: Kung Fu Panda - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Happy halloween, this is super duper late lmfao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 10:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 11,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8575150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crackersme/pseuds/crackersme
Summary: Po and company take shelter from a storm! In a creepy manor... of course it's haunted.





	1. Chapter 1

They had to get out of the storm. Crane was probably faring the best out of the squad just because he didn't have to walk in mud. That wasn't saying much—he had his own challenge trying to fly against the wind.

Po could barely see Tigress and Monkey in the dark and the rain, though they were walking right beside him. And he had no clue how close Viper and Mantis were, since they weren't taller than the marsh grass, but he'd bet they were covered head to tail in dirt too. Po tried to stop his teeth chattering—if he kept that up, he'd grind them into dust.

It had been hours of walking like this, and he didn't expect anything to change anytime soon. Then Tigress fell against his shoulder.

Po immediately grabbed her, thinking she was collapsing from exhaustion—not something he'd blame her for. But she was fine, thank the heavens. Just getting his attention in a way that didn't make her stop hugging herself.

"Over there," she stammered, gesturing with her head. "A building."

She was right—about half a mile away, a manor house stood proudly on the marsh. It was the first thing they'd seen since the storm started that wasn't grass or freaking water. They weren't even lucky enough to come across a tree before, but hey, they were finally getting out of the cold so the past was the past.

Tigress looked around at everyone to check that they'd heard her, then dropped down on all fours and started running. Po and the others followed suit—it was impossible to tell who was most desperate to get warm and dry, with how fast they were all going.

Po took the manor in as they approached. It was a massive thing, at least twice the size of the training dojo, and ten times older than any of them. The stone foundation was discoloured and the finish on the wooden pillars was peeling. But all the windows were shuttered, and there weren't any holes that Po could see. As long as it kept the rain out, it didn't need to look pretty.

Everyone gathered on the porch and breathed a collective sigh of relief—the wind and rain couldn't beat down on them anymore. Po wasted no time stumbling to the great ornate doors and knocking. With his fat insulating him, he had to be the warmest one here, and since he felt like an ice block he couldn't imagine how badly his friends were doing.

They waited a long time, long enough for Tigress' patience to run dry. She came to Po's side, and just as she lifted her leg to kick an entryway into existence, the sound of a springing lock rang out. The door swung in to reveal a short, wizened goat.

"Visitors...?" He squinted his milky eyes at the varied bunch of animals in front of him.

"Hey there, sir," Po said, trying hard to stop his voice from shaking as bad as the rest of him. "I'm the Dragon Warrior and these guys are the Furious Five. Could we camp out in your place for the night? The storm was really wrecking us."

The goat looked taken aback. "Are you sure?"

Po didn't think his request was all that wild, considering that the rain had been pretty much about to drown them. "Um... sure I'm sure."

The goat looked them up and down for many moments. Then he gave them a smile that was very lovely if you ignored all the missing teeth.

He pulled the door further open. "Certainly. Come in."

The words barely passed his thin little lips when Po and his friends fell through the doorway and landed in a heap.

"Ahhh... thanks, mister," Mantis said. He climbed out of the friendpile and perched himself on Po's forehead. "You don't know how much you totally saved our cold-blooded butts." He gestured to himself and Viper, who couldn't do much more than slump half on Tigress and half over the relatively warm floorboards.

Po shot a sympathetic look at her and untangled himself from all the Furious Five on him. Their host looked on in amusement.

"You young'uns look like a hot supper would do you good. I'll fix something up for you."

The situation just went from a rising seven to a twenty. Po might tear up from the wonderful news.

The goat shut the great door on a clap of thunder, and turned away. "Follow me."


	2. Chapter 2

This manor must've belonged to some rich noble in the past. The goat led them through a gigantic foyer and ballroom into a network of twisting corridors, where loads of furniture was pressed against the walls. It all looked very expensive, handcrafted and laden with gold.

Po would've been more impressed if the place was clean—nothing had been touched for a decade, everything had a solid line of dust covering it. Everything he could see, anyway—the whole place was dark as night. All the curtains were drawn and there were only a handful of candles standing on random end tables and cabinets.

Po and the Five huddled together, which was very unbecoming of hardcore warriors, but they were all past caring. They watched their new goat friend shuffle to the fireplace and kneel down. After a little messing with some flint and steel, a fire bloomed. The host straightened up and gave his guests his gummy smile.

"Please sit and get warm. I'll return shortly with something delicious." He bowed and disappeared through a chef door.

"Well, I don't know what you guys think," Viper said, "but we could definitely be doing worse right now." She slithered up onto a seat at the long table. Crane perched himself beside her, Monkey and Tigress sat down opposite them, Mantis squeezed his spot between the two mammals, and Po took the spot next to Tigress—the guest-of-honour seat at the end of the table, just like custom dictated.

Crane poked at the plush cushioning of his seat. A cloud of cotton poked out of a hole in the sewing. "It's not exactly the Imperial Palace, but I'll give it five stars just for a having a roof."

"I'll give it five stars if the food's edible," Po said.

"Edible for you or edible for normal people?" Mantis asked. "Cause I'm pretty sure I saw you use sand as a garnish once."

Everyone except Po and Tigress snickered. Po stuck his lower lip out. "Those were mineral stones, _actually_ , and they're super healthy for you."

"Sure, sure," Mantis said. "But let's hope this goat dude isn't so into fancy diets. All I want is some soup or something."

They sat and warmed up in comfortable silence, until the wait became uncomfortable. They couldn't hear anything from the kitchen, no chopping, no pots clanging together, nothing. Po was concerned. He got up to investigate.

Before he could swing the kitchen door open, a piercing screech came from behind it. **"Don't look inside!"**

Po stumbled back a few paces. He felt the others tense behind him, and the air shift as Tigress rushed to his side.

Before they could decide what to do, the goat slipped out. He pushed along a trolley overflowing with steaming bowls of broth, baskets of bread and fruit, jugs of wine and beer, and a platter of cakes. It was enough food for a whole street back in the Valley.

Po and the Five stared at the goat in shock. He prepared everything in record time.

"Sorry if I alarmed you," the goat said with a smile that highlighted every last wrinkle on his face. "Please, sit."

Po and Tigress shared a momentary look, then followed the request. The goat came to each guest and set their broth under their noses. It didn't look great, Po thought this guy could take some pointers from his dad about presentation. But it smelled delicious, maybe just because Po was so desperately hungry.

Once the goat set everything else on the table, he bowed and hobbled away to stand in a corner—one of the corners away from the fireplace. "Enjoy."

Po and his friends looked at him in confusion. "Aren't you gonna join us?" the panda asked.

The goat shook his head. "I'm not the master of this house, only the servant. Please eat."

"Oh. Shouldn't we wait for the master?"

The goat's smile widened even further—pretty impressive how he managed to do that. "Impeccable manners, boy. I'm afraid the master won't be joining us. He's been feeling weak lately... hasn't been able to eat... so he's resting in his quarters this evening. But please. He very much wants you to enjoy your meals."

Po and the Five paused for a moment, and with nothing more stopping them, descended on the food.

Po's nose was right—the broth was delicious.


	3. Chapter 3

When they had as much as they could take, the goat stepped forward again.

"I trust you enjoyed that?"

Po and company replied with a round of approving hums.

"Excellent. Now, it's getting late and you must be tired. Follow me, I will lead you to your dooms."

Po did a double take. "Our what?"

"Your rooms." Oh. Po must've misheard him—none of his friends reacted like the goat had said anything weird, they were too busy rubbing their stomachs contently. The short little creature grinned at the sight of his happy guests. "Yes, it's very late now, come along."

With effort, they got up off the seats. Monkey started a chain reaction of yawning—the promise of a dry sleep was making all their eyelids droop already.

The goat led them back to the main foyer and up its grand staircase. Every step creaked under Po's weight. If he hadn't been trained to hone his kung fu instincts, he'd be worried he'd fall through and hurt himself.

Thankfully the old wood stayed strong. They came into the middle of a corridor that was so long, gazing down it gave Po vertigo. A string of old faded paintings and heavy-looking doors stood on the walls on either side. The door at the end of the left-hand side had been excessively boarded and chained up.

"What's with that?" Po asked as he pointed at it.

"Oh... the master doesn't like to take the chance of being disturbed." The goat turned his back on the strange sight and led them down the right corridor. "I'm afraid," he said, "that many of the rooms are unfit for guests. There are three available, I hope it's not too much trouble for you to share?"

"No trouble at all," Viper said graciously. "We often all sleep in the same spot."

The goat beamed at her, his milky eyes shining in the low candlelight. "You do? That's very... convenient. That you could all be found in the same spot. Like ingredients in a pantry."

There was a short silence. The party kept walking.

"Well, here is the first room." The goat gestured to one door that looked just like all the ones around it. Po counted and it was six doors down from the end.

"Calling it," Mantis said. He leapt on the rickety doorknob and twisted it with some clever footwork.

"Me too," Monkey said, "Night, everyone."

The two buddies disappeared into the pitch-black room, and the door swung shut.

They shuffled along three doors and the host swung the next room open for Po's friends. Viper slithered in with Crane on her six.

"Drat," he said, looking at his still damp wings, "it's going to take me forever to preen myself."

Viper waved the tip of her tail at Po and Tigress, then shut the door.

"And you two," the goat said. "If you please, the room at the end."

He gestured to it but didn't take another step.

Tigress looked at Po, he shrugged, and they stepped forward together to claim their room. As she opened the door, he realised he'd neglected to ask something.

"Hey mister, sorry, we forgot to ask your..." he turned around and trailed off. The corridor behind them was empty. "Your name—what the..."

Seemed like that goat could move fast when he wanted to. He did act surprisingly chipper for someone of his age.

Po had to be honest—he was a little weirded out. But he was a lot tired. Everything that wasn't sleep could wait till morning. He closed the door and took a look around.

A lit candelabra stood on a chest of drawers. It gave the two of them only the faintest light, but it was just enough to see the room. It was massive just like everywhere else in the manor, all wooden panelling with some fancy wallpaper and a great big rug. There was a musty four-poster bed, which Po flopped onto.

"Oh no you don't," Tigress said. She deftly rolled him off. He shot his arms out before the floor could smack his face.

"Aw, c'mon..."

"You're filthy. We both are. At least get the worst of the mud off." She demonstrated with her arms, using her claws to scrape them a little cleaner. "Or I won't sleep next to you."

"Fine, don't sleep next to me," Po said. He landed his butt on the bed again. Tigress turned her nose up at him and dropped onto the rug.

Po grinned and quickly tugged much of the dried mud off his fur. "Kidding. Get over here, you're not sleeping down there."

"I am," Tigress said. She turned her back on him.

He laughed and got up to walk her way. When he was close enough, he looped his arms around her waist and picked her up.

She struggled against him, not enough to get out of his hold, just to let him know she was feeling stubborn. Like usual. He laughed again.

"Bed now, bath later. Sound like a plan?"

Tigress didn't have to face him for Po to know she was pouting. She grunted in acceptance.

"Awesome." Po carried her to the bed and lay down with her. He heard Tigress grumble.

"Our host won't be happy with the state of these sheets."

"He'll forgive us," Po assured her. "Didn't you see how nice he was being? Probably doesn't get much company way out here. I reckon he'd let us get away with _murder_."

Tigress grunted again. Her grouchiness was probably more about how tired she was than anything else. Po kissed her cheek, way past caring if there was dirt on her fur, and snuggled up against her back.

"Night night. Love you."

Tigress wasn't too grouchy to say, "love you," back at him.


	4. Chapter 4

Someone screamed.

Po shot up, instantly awake. Tigress was already upright and staring at the door. She was frozen.

"What on—wha—what was—" Po started.

The scream rang out again, from beyond the corridor, slightly muffled but still as loud as the thunder that joined it. It sounded like Monkey.

Tigress leapt out of bed and ran for the the door, Po hot on her tail. As they passed the corridor, their speed snuffed some of the candles out. A door opened in the gloom and Crane and Viper jumped out.

"What happened?!" Viper cried.

"We were just on our way to finding out!" Po told her.

They burst into Mantis and Monkey's room and automatically struck a group defensive stance. All the lights were out, until there was a low snapping sound, a spark, and one candle came to life to show Mantis with his pincers out.

"Where's Monkey?" Po asked him.

"Right here," Monkey's voice drifted out from the other side of the room. It sounded thick and quiet.

Tigress picked up the candelabra Mantis just lit, and walked to Monkey's side. The light showed that he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

"What's going on, buddy?" Po asked.

"Eh... sorry guys, I just had a nightmare." Monkey looked up at them, and his eyes were still widened from whatever had been in his head.

"A nightmare?" Crane repeated, unimpressed.

"You scared me half to death for a bad dream?" Mantis joined in. "You nearly blew my eardrums out! Wait, do mantises have eardrums?"

"Leave him alone, guys," Viper snapped, "he can't help it." She slithered close to Monkey's knee. "What happened in the nightmare?"

Monkey looked like he'd rather avoid the question, but surrounded by five curious faces, he didn't really have anywhere to retreat.

"I... I was back at home with my mother and brother. We were just having a normal time, having dinner, but... then suddenly my mum collapsed. We rushed to her side but she wouldn't wake up. Then she... changed. Her fur feel out, her skin went all blue, then she sat up but she... she wasn't right! Then she _attacked us!"_

There was a short silence. Then Mantis spoke again.

"You woke up screaming because... you got your butt kicked by a little old lady?"

"What did I just say, Mantis?" Viper snapped.

"It wasn't her!" Monkey cried. "She was... it was like she died, and then she came back! Like a ghoul!" He bit his lip and looked down at his long fingers. "There was something else."

"What?" Po asked gently.

"While she was attacking me, she talked to me. She was yelling... telling me what a disappointment I turned out to be."

"But you're not a disappointment at all!" Po pointed out. "You're totally the opposite—you're one of the best kung fu masters alive, and part of _the_ most elite team in China—nope, the world!"

"He's right, of course," Viper said wisely. "Your nightmare was just about your inner insecurities, don't listen to them."

Mantis yawned. "Well, now we know he's not been murdered or anything, can we go back to bed?"

"Yes," Tigress said. "We still have a long journey ahead of us. Everybody rest."

"And I swear," Mantis carried on, "the next person who screams like that is gonna get their tail handed to them in a bow by yours truly."

Po held the door open for his friends. They went back to their rooms, each hoping there wouldn't be another rude awakening.


	5. Chapter 5

Sleep was for wusses, apparently. Po didn't think it had been a full hour before another scream echoed through the manor.

He was the first to hear it this time. He watched as the scream registered in Tigress' head and she bolted up.

"Who is it now?" she asked, a little exasperated but still concerned.

"Had to be Mantis," Po said. "Looks like he's handing himself his own tail."

The couple rushed back to Monkey and Mantis' room. Or at least, they tried to. Po could've sworn, as he opened the door and found a room full of junk, that it had been this one—six doors down from the end.

"What the..." Crane said as he and Viper approached. "The rooms changed?"

Po was glad he wasn't the only one who noticed, or he would've really questioned his brain. He didn't think he was so sleep deprived that he could've hallucinated a whole new room.

Mantis screamed again past the next door down. Po and his friends burst through it. This time Viper lit the candle with a superfast flick of her tail on the wick.

Mantis was tossing and turning in bed until Tigress approached and nudged him with a finger. He snapped his eyes open and leapt off the bed in reflex.

"Whoa whoa _whoa_! There must be something in the air or something cause I just had the _worst_ nightmare!"

"Um, Mantis?" Crane tried to interject.

"Seriously, that sucked! I dreamt I was standing in a massive crowd of strangers, ginormous animals like you guys—"

"Mantis..." Tigress said.

"And I tried to find a way out but everyone was super packed together—"

"Mantis," Viper snapped.

"And I couldn't, and then someone totally _squished_ me! Can you believe—"

"MANTIS!" Po yelled.

"What?!" Mantis yelled back. "I'm trying to tell you guys about my sucky night over here!"

"Yeah, and we're sorry to hear it, pal," Po said. "But where's Monkey?"

"Wha...?" Mantis looked around to see that the room was free of any simians. "He was right here..."

"Maybe he went to find an outhouse?" Crane suggested.

"I don't like this," Tigress said, and went for the door. "Come on, we need to be sure he's okay. Split up and find him."

Warning bells went off in Po's head. "Uh... is splitting up a good idea?"

Tigress raised her brow at his challenge. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can go back to bed." She looked at the others. "Viper, you start with these upper floor rooms, Mantis, go down to the dining wing—"

"Wait, wait!" Po said. "Sorry, but I really think we should go take a look around in groups. This house is just... old. And dark."

Tigress sighed. "Fine. You baby. You and Mantis, with me on the lower floor. Crane and Viper, search up here."

Everyone nodded. They left the room and went their separate ways, which felt a little worrying, but Po reasoned that they all had someone to fall back on, if something went wrong.

And what could go wrong? Out here in a weird run-down house, miles and miles from anyone else, in the middle of the night?

Po shuddered and kept walking.


	6. Chapter 6

They found something—dust. Lots of it. Seemed like that goat servant was actually really bad at his job. There wasn't one spot in the house that wasn't caked with dust.

Even the floorboards were covered. Which was weird, because Po knew he and his friends must've made loads of footprints (or bodyprints for Viper) earlier. They were making some right now, but the old ones were nowhere to be found.

They couldn't find any of Monkey's prints either. They had no idea where he could've gone.

"Mooooonkeeeeeey..." Po and Mantis took it in turns to whisper—they didn't want to disturb the servant or master, not after everything they did for their guests.

"Stop that, you two," Tigress muttered. "It's not helping, in case you couldn't tell."

"What else can we do?" Po asked. "We've got no clue where he went—"

"Or _why_ he went," Mantis added. "Hopefully he's just sleepwalking or something, but..."

"But what?" Tigress asked sharply.

"Like... what if _something got him?_ Like, don't you guys feel like there's something not-right about this place?"

Po did. Of course he did, they were isolated in the middle of nowhere with no company, and one of their own was missing.

"It's just a house, Mantis," Tigress sighed.

"No it isn't! This place is totally—"

"Don't say—"

"Totally _haunted!"_ Mantis whisper-yelled over her.

She tutted and turned to glare down at him. "You're letting your sleep-deprivation get the better of you. What, you think this place has some sort of ghoul lurking around the hallways, plucking visitors out of their beds?" She ended her reprimand with a scoff. "Ridiculous."

Po didn't join in on the argument, and pressed ahead of his little group instead. They arrived at the dining room, which was Monkeyless just like all the areas before it. The table was cleared, and the fireplace was as dead as it had been before they arrived. It didn't even smell like anything had been burned recently.

If his friends asked him, he'd have to say he was slightly leaning towards Mantis' side of things right now. He stepped over to the kitchen doors and reached out, about to push them open.

Then it wasn't slightly anymore—another scream echoed out from the upper floor.

"Viper," Tigress breathed.

Po dropped his paws and they shot out of the room, back to the hall with the stairs. They flew up at the speed of an arrow and followed another scream into a room at the end of the left corridor.

When they exploded in through the door, they found Crane kneeling beside Viper, who was shivering on the floor, her underside facing the ceiling.

"What happened?" Po asked quickly. "Is she okay?"

"She fainted!" Crane explained as Viper flipped herself the right way up. "Then I think she had a nightmare?"

"I don't..." Viper murmured, her voice strained. "What's happening to us?"

"Is it true?" Tigress asked in a much gentler tone than usual. "Did you have a dream like the others did?"

Viper's tiny face screwed up. "It was horrible. I was back in my home village and all the other snakes were staring at me, then my _scales_ , they just started _falling out_ , all of them flicked off until I was just a _skeleton_..."

She rubbed vigorously at her eyes with her tail, while Crane petted her on the back.

"That's..." Po started. "Horrible. Sorry, Viper. And sorry, Mantis, you guys and Monkey are..." His train of thought rolled to a stop as he looked around at the floor and couldn't see his bug friend anywhere. "Mantis?"

At the alarm in his voice, the others looked around too. The little guy was nowhere in sight.

Crane straightened up. "Okay, I'm not the only one who sees a pattern here, right? One of us has a nightmare, and the next thing you know, they're missing?"

Tigress scowled. "If it was just Monkey and Mantis, I'd say it's all a 'hilarious' prank, but..." She looked back down at Viper and how miserable she looked.

"Something here's messing with us," Po said authoritatively. "We gotta go find the servant guy and ask what the heck is up with this place."

He made for the door, not sure where he was going to go, but if the goat wasn't here he had to be out there.

Po didn't make it to the door before everything went pitch black. The curtains were suddenly drawn and the candle blown out.

Then Viper began screaming again, the sound totally different from before, this time not only afraid but panicking. _"Something's got me!"_

Po stumbled forward. He reached out blindly, grabbing in the general area he thought Viper was, but his paws closed on air. He heard something scrape against the floorboards and Viper's next scream came from the other side of the room.

_"Guys, help!"_

There was a snapping sound and the bed was suddenly on fire. Po instinctively turned to the light and saw Tigress standing beside it, holding some flint and steel with an ashen face.

Po whirled around to find Viper. The top half of her body was sticking out of a tiny hole in the wall, that Crane was trying to tug her from. He could've been doing better—Viper was slowly getting sucked in.

Po leapt forward to help and wrapped his paws around Viper's body the same way Crane's talons did. The two of them tugged, and Po even planted one of his feet on the wall to get some leverage.

It wasn't enough. Before Tigress could join them, Viper made a choking sound, and Crane and Po loosened their grips to avoid strangling their friend. She slipped trough their fingers, and vanished in the hole like a noodle in Po's mouth.

She stopped screaming, and the fire went out.


	7. Chapter 7

"What... what..." Crane panted.

Once Po's vision adjusted to the dark, he found Tigress' face and they shared a look of mutual freaked-out-edness. Then Po looked back at the little hole, that only Viper's body could fit through. He felt a strange compulsion tickle his brain, and before he could fight it, he leaned forward and peeked through the hole.

There was nothing but darkness on the other side of it.

Then a giant red eye opened, and looked back at him.

"AaaaaAAAAAH!" Po launched himself away from the wall, and slammed into the two warriors standing behind him. They fell over together into another pile.

"What?! What was it?!" Crane screeched.

"An eye— _ugh!"_ Po forced himself to his feet and whirled around with his paws outstretched. Tigress grabbed one, Crane grabbed the other and they let Po hoist them back up.

He didn't let go of their paws/wings when they found their feet, and instead dragged them to the door. "We gotta get away from _that!"_

Crane tried to wriggle out of his grip. "But it has Viper!"

"We'll go back for her," Tigress said as she allowed Po to tug her along. "For the others as well. Right now, we need to regroup, and figure out what's happening."

"What's there to figure out?!" Crane finally got himself out of Po's grasp, but didn't go back to the room, and instead glided along with the others, looking helpless. "There's a freaking monster in this place."

"Sure does look like it, huh?" Po said. "And it's got some kind of power that can make us go to sleep and dream horrible stuff. We don't know how to deal with it."

"How to deal with it?" Tigress repeated. "Simple—we fight it until it relents and gives us our friends back."

"Maybe not?" Po told her. Tigress stared at him in surprise. It wasn't like him to give up before a fight even started properly. "What I mean is, maybe we shouldn't just go at it blindly. We should get out of this crazy whack-a-doodle place and come back with backup."

"Out of the question," Tigress told him flatly.

"We can't leave our friends behind, we're a team!" Crane cried.

Po brought them up some further stairs and into the manor's giant attic. He let go of Tigress and trotted to one side of the sloping roof, then gave it a solid punch. The roof tiles shattered, and the wind and rain rushed in through the hole Po had made. "After you guys."

"Didn't you hear us?" Crane snapped.

"You're outvoted, Po," Tigress said. "We're not going anywhere. It would be cowardly to leave without the others."

Po scowled at his friends, Tigress in particular. The two of them were the joint leaders of the team, and they were almost always of the same mind. Which the rest of the Five were super grateful for, because both of them were terrifically stubborn.

Po's stubbornness was still in full effect tonight. He opened his mouth to argue when the storm suddenly hushed. The three masters looked over at the hole, and before their eyes, tiles flew back up and into place—the roof was repairing itself.

When it resealed, Po paused for a moment before he stepped forward and punched the roof again, in the same spot as before. This time it didn't give quite as easily. The hole Po made was smaller, and the roof tiles barely hit the floor when they were zooming back up to fill themselves in.

The manor was deliberately trying to keep them inside. That sure wasn't going to fly. Po grit his teeth and launched an assault on the spot in front of him. After a few kicks there was a hole big enough for Crane and Tigress to slip out, but not himself. Po forced his shoulders in the open space and struck his arms out so it couldn't reseal. He blinked as heavy rain fell on his face.

"Guys, you need to go, now!"

They didn't move. "Now you're suggesting we leave you behind?" Tigress said. "You're full of terrible ideas tonight."

Po focused on her, and the way she was staring back at him. Her lips were drawn back and her hackles were up. Everything about her looked furious, except for her eyes. In them was something Po rarely saw—a touch of fear.

"I'll be fine," he grunted against the effort of keeping the opening up. "You two can move way faster than me—get back to the Jade Palace, get Shifu and all my panda family, and you can all come rescue us and kick butt."

"No," Tigress shot out. "We're not going, and certainly not without you."

"Tigress," Po said, in as much of a warning tone as he could manage. "You need to think about what's best for the team, not just—"

"I'm _not leaving you."_

Po sighed and tried not to be touched by her loyalty. "Tigress, please—"

He couldn't go through with plea, as Crane promptly interrupted them by slumping to the floor in a heap.

The couple snapped to his attention. Tigress went to his side while Po abandoned the hole, since his friends were too bullheaded to use it.

He barely made it to Crane's side. The avian's eyes fluttered for a few seconds, then with a scream he took flight, lifting himself off the lake of dust that made up the attic floor. "Oh no, oh no, it's me next. I don't want _that_ to be the last thing I see!"

Po and Tigress looked up at him in concern. Po ignored how Crane's wingbeats were blowing dust into his eyes and said, "We're not gonna let the monster take you, buddy. Keep it cool, it was just a dream, okay?"

"No..." Crane moaned, his eyes bugging out. "You didn't see... horrible... an evil monster, horrible fangs, it came into my room, and clipped my wings! I couldn't..."

He started muttering under his breath. Po and Tigress exchanged glances and stepped away from each other, into positions where they could leap up and bring Crane back down, as if he was only a kite that escaped a kid's grip and not a friend having a meltdown.

Before they could move for him, all the floorboards creaked and shifted, like they would in the first few tremors of an earthquake.

Then the floor split apart, and Po and Tigress crashed through it.


	8. Chapter 8

Po groaned in pain. He'd landed on his back, on a pile of broken wood.

He sat up and coughed through the cloud of dust that swirled around him. Another groan came from his side.

"Tigress?" he rasped. "You okay?"

The sound she replied with wasn't exactly affirming, but it told him she was conscious and could understand him, which was as much as he could ask for after a fall like that.

"Guys...?" Crane called out. Po looked up to see the bird high above them, still in the attic and looking down on his two friends through the holes. Holes, plural. Po and Tigress had fallen through both sets of floorboards and found themselves back in the main foyer.

Crane began descending gently down to them. Po forced himself to his feet and helped Tigress up for good measure. "What d'you make of that?"

She sighed and brushed dust off of her qipao. "I have to admit, there seems to be some kind of... spirit in this house. A markedly unfriendly one."

Po nodded. "What should we do now?" he asked her.

Crane was the one who answered.

_"Save me from this monster thing!"_

Po and Tigress looked up in time to see Crane suspended, his wings pressed together by black smoky tendrils.

"Crane!" The couple cried in unison.

Then he was whipped out of sight. They heard his scream echo through the manor, until it was abruptly cut off.

"No, no, no!" Po cried. He bent his knees and hooked his palms together so Tigress could stand on them and let him catapult her upstairs. "C'mon, we gotta go after this thing!"

He stared up at the spot Crane disappeared from. After a few seconds of Tigress not stepping on his waiting paws, he looked at her. She looked back, her expression morbid.

"Po..." she started.

"Tigress!" he snapped. "This thing has _all_ of our friends, we can't afford to waste time!" He straightened up. "I'll go first if that's what you want."

"No, Po." She took hold of his shoulder. "I should've listened to you before."

"About what?"

"You were right, we should've left, and come back with support..."

Po quickly shook his head. "Doesn't matter now."

"Yes it does." Tigress grabbed his paw and dragged him to the main doors. With her free paw she reached out and tugged at one of the door handles.

They both fully expected it to be bolted shut.

What a pleasant surprise when it swung right open. The storm greeted them again, just as loud and furious as it had been all night.

Tigress turned to Po. "After you."

"Nuh uh," Po said. "There's no way you can make me—"

She shoved him through the doorway. The cold air hit Po's fur, and oddly enough it felt soothing. He hadn't realised before how stuffy it was in the house.

"Okay... okay, you're right, we need to—"

He turned around and his heart dropped into his stomach. Tigress had sunk to her knees and her head was in her paws.

"No!" Po rushed back in, to her side. He kneeled down himself and grabbed her arms. "Not her, leave her alone!" he yelled at the house. "If you really want more, have me instead!"

The house didn't answer. Po tightened his grip and tried to drag her out—they were so close to freedom—but she wouldn't budge. Tigress dropped her head and reached out for Po's shoulders.

Po heard a single sob burst out of her. "Tigress...?"

She looked up at him, fighting back tears.

"What... what did it make you see?"

She stared at him, and didn't answer for a long moment. She was trying hard to hold it in, he could see, but too soon it unravelled.

"I was... _so..."_

A curtain of darkness fell down just behind Tigress. Even though the door was open, Po couldn't see into the house anymore. His fur stood on end, and he felt Tigress' do the same.

They shared a look of panic. Po opened his mouth, and he couldn't think of what to say before Tigress pushed him hard, and he flew out of the open doorway. Just as he landed on the porch, the door slammed shut.


	9. Chapter 9

His heart was pounding louder than the thunder.

Why did she do that?

_Why did she_ _**do**_ _that?_

He focused on being as angry at her as he could, so he didn't have to be scared for her. For all of them.

Po looked out into the storm and the open fields. It would take so long for him to get back alone. In that time, any sort of horrific thing could happen to his friends, if it hadn't already.

Screw the plan, he couldn't leave them. He turned back to the doors and tested the handles. Of course they wouldn't budge, at least he tried.

He stepped back a few paces and looked all around. Climbing to the roof wasn't a option—he might get lightninged, and then who would be around to help his friends? A window would have to do.

He followed the wall around until he saw a low-sitting one with thin shutters. One energetic leap through it later, he was back inside the worst place in the world.

Stone tiles stood under his feet. Po looked around carefully in the dark to see a big empty room. He was weirded out when he saw the swinging doors and realised what it was supposed to be—the kitchen. But there were no boxes of ingredients, no crockery, pots or pans, not even a stove or counters. Absolutely nothing.

Nothing except for water and the smell of mildew. Po groaned in annoyance. He was sick of this stuff. It trickled down all of the walls and the ceiling, making giant puddles on the tiles, probably from a broken pipe or a hole to the sky above. This room looked more like a bathhouse than a kitchen, and Po's stomach swirled as he considered how it looked like basically the least hygienic place for food to be prepared.

Who'd want to stay here? Po trotted over to the doors and was just about to elbow his way out when he heard a chuckle from behind him.

It sounded so happy and playful, but all of Po's organs dropped an inch. He looked over his shoulder to find the goat servant standing ten feet away.

"You should really be in bed, sir. This is your last chance to get some rest, it'll be dawn soon."

Po flexed his fists and snapped into an offensive stance. "What did you do with my friends?!"

The goat grinned in his nasty, gummy way. "I took them in, fed them, gave them beds to sleep in for the night. What did _you_ do with your friends?"

Po stepped around, wondering if it would be unfair to attack this tiny little goat. He clearly wasn't physically strong, Po could probably flick at one of his horns and send him flying.

"What d'you mean?" he muttered.

"Well, all night they were confronted with visions of the most terrible things, their worst fears. You're their friend, but... you stood by and watched. You didn't save them."

Po didn't care if it wasn't fair anymore. With a "hi-yah!", he leapt up and aimed his heel at the goat's chest.

The old guy stepped back into the darkness. Po pushed forward and tried to punch him, but all he hit was the wall. How fast could a goat of great-grandfather age be?

"Tell me where you took them!" Po cried as he tried to follow the little goat.

"I didn't take them. The master did. They're all in his room." He leered. "It's almost time for the master's breakfast."

Po cringed in horror. "W-what do you mean?! What is he, is he a cannibal or something?!"

The goat laughed. "No, no, of course not. He doesn't eat the bodies of his guests." The goat stopped laughing, and smiling. "Only their _souls_. And he tells me they never taste so good, as when they're racked with unimaginable terror! Ahahahaha!"

Po dropped his fists in shock. He opened his mouth to ask what the creep meant, but after a second of shock, decided it wasn't worth it. He got a location, that was everything he needed.

Po whirled around and shot out of the room. He'd never been so fast to climb stairs, and when he got to the end of the corridor, where the boarded up door was, he didn't slow down. He barrelled right through, and landed on the floor, on a bed of wood.

Of course it was dark in here, why would it be anything else. Po picked himself up as quickly as he could and tried to see if there was anything at all in the room.

He couldn't see, but he could hear. And feel. Loud breathing rumbled from the corner, then the side of the room. The floorboards creaked as something heavy stepped over them. The 'master' crept closer until breath ruffled Po's fur.

Po grimaced and backed away until he could feel the wall, then followed it around until drapes brushed against his back. He grabbed hold of them and tugged down sharply.

The curtains fell, and some small light from the night sky fell into the room.

Po saw the master.

He was... a lot of things. He had eight hairy legs like a spider, tentacles shooting out of his back like a squid, a shark's pointed snout, and a scaly chest. Every inch of him was dark maroon, like dried wine, and he stood twelve feet tall.

Po looked up at him and clenched his teeth.

"Hey. _You._ I want my friends back."

The master turned his head curiously, and Po wondered for a second if he could understand Chinese. It didn't seem like he'd be a regular person, he looked way too beastly.

But in the next moment, the master chuckled. It was a horridly raspy sound, like the last time he'd drunk a drop of water was several years ago.

"And waste such delicious fear?" he said in the same rasp. "As a courtier of pure tastes, I can't allow that. And I will not go hungry again, I've waited too long."

"I'm not gonna let you _eat_ them!" Po yelled, feeling weird that he had to say such a thing. He jumped and performed a neat frontflip in the air, so he could drop-kick this creature.

Po's foot bounced off of his skin. It was as tough as ironwood, and he had to scramble away when one of the master's great legs swung at him.

"'Them'?" He chuckled as Po skirted around him, trying to find his blind spot, if it existed. "You meant to say 'us'. You will all make a wonderful feast... I think I'll have the first four little fools as a starter, you're enough alone for a main course, and the striped girl, she'll be dessert. And such a sweet one at that!"

Po grit his teeth and gave a spinning kick to one of the master's leg joints. It was unfortunately just as effective as his last attack. "You're not touching her, you're not touching any of them while I got something to say about it!"

"Oh, but you don't, not any longer." The master flashed his red eyes at Po. The room quickly started to spin. Po felt himself stumble over, and his elbow hit the floor, and that was the last thing he was sure of before everything went truly black.


	10. Chapter 10

Po opened his eyes to bright sunshine.

He bolted up. That wasn't right, they were in a raging storm in the middle of—

His bedroom at his goose dad's restaurant.

It had all been a dream? Oh thank heaven, all of his friends were safe. And warm, and dry. And Tigress wasn't all dirty, she'd be pleased about that. Po chuckled and got up to stretch.

He was feeling a little lethargic this morning. His muscles felt weird, like he hadn't used them properly in a while, but that wasn't true. Shifu got them to pull a whole bunch of stunts in the dojo, all day yesterday. Po scratched at his arm, feeling puzzled, and trotted downstairs.

Mr. Ping was faithfully chopping vegetables at the counter, and glanced over his shoulder at the unmistakable sound of Po's arrival. "Good morning, son!" He gestured with a few feathers to a bowl on the side. "Mrs. Lang came in early for her soup, would you take it to her table?"

The request made Po pause. He didn't work at the restaurant anymore, and while he'd never mind lending a paw to his dad, Mr. Ping firmly banned him from helping out in any way. It was silly, but Po's dad had got it in his head that catering work was beneath the Dragon Warrior.

What a relief that he seemed to have turned around about that. Maybe Li Shan taught him humility—the panda villagers all liked to chip in on each other's jobs. Po scooped up the bowl and ducked through the entranceway.

He had a hard time keeping the bowl steady when he caught sight of the restaurant.

It was _wrong_. All the Dragon Warriors posters were gone, as was the Sacred Mop. And it didn't matter the time of day, the place was always packed for the chance to see him... but not now. Today only an elderly pig was sitting at a table, looking at the bowl in his paws expectantly.

"What... dad, what's going on?" He muttered over his shoulder.

"What do you mean, son?" Mr. Ping didn't stop chopping.

Po couldn't understand. No one would just stop worshipping his title, least of all his dad. He turned back to him.

"What happened to all the Dragon Warrior stuff? You know?"

Mr. Ping raised one side of his feathered brow. "Are you talking about all your kung fu toys? They're in your room like always."

Po's stomach dropped. It all felt so wrong.

"Where... where's dad?" Where were any of the pandas, actually.

"I'm right here!" Mr. Ping abandoned his cleaver and waddled over. "You're acting strange, are you feeling unwell? Sit down, I'll heat up some broth for you."

"No, dad, listen," Po said, fighting back a rising panic. "You know I'm the Dragon Warrior, right? The defender of the Valley? The mightiest kung fu master of them all?"

Mr. Ping chuckled. "Ah, I see. You're sleepwalking. Okay, mighty kung fu person."

"Dad!" Po snapped. "I'm awake! I'm _so_ awake and—"

The edges of a memory touched his mind. Something had happened to the others.

"Dad, dad, where are my friends? The Five?"

"Your action figures? I believe they're on your windowsi—"

_"DAD!"_ Po cried. He started to run in place, trying and failing to rein in his nervous energy. "Where are the real guys?! Right now, physically, where are they?!"

"Up in the Jade Palace, I would think, but you—Po?!"

He sprinted out of the restaurant, leaving a bewildered Mr. Ping and Mrs. Lang in his dust.


	11. Chapter 11

Po only noticed he was still holding the bowl when he got to the foot of the Thousand Steps, and chucked it away haphazardly before he climbed.

Wrong, so wrong. It was as difficult as the first time he climbed, all those years ago. And it took _forever_.

By the time he made it to the top, wheezing up a storm, a crowd of geese servants had circled around him.

"What's your business here?" One of them asked, like they didn't recognise him.

"I... live... here." Po panted. "I'm the... Dragon... Warrior!"

The geese looked at each other. "You're a loose screw is what you are," one of them told him. "Master Tigress is the Dragon Warrior."

"...What?" Was everyone playing a prank on him? If they were, wow it was a sophisticated one, but he didn't know how they made his body feel so weak. "No... listen, I need to talk to Shifu, right away."

"That's _Grandmaster_ Shifu. Be respectful."

"You don't understand!" Po forced himself to stand and stumble forward. The geese scattered to get out of his way, and didn't stop him from making it to the grand doors of the Hall of Heroes. He shoved them open as quickly as they could go.

Since it was so early, the skylights couldn't let in all that much, so it was pretty dark. All the same, Po couldn't mistake two of his closest family standing together at the end of the hall—Shifu and Tigress.

Their eyes widened on seeing him. For a moment, Po let himself smile that Tigress was here and she looked completely unhurt. He made to run to them but didn't get far—about five steps—before Tigress leapt forward in a great arc and tackled him down.

His back slammed against the jade flooring, which didn't do his already wheezy breath any favours. Tigress stayed standing, with her foot on his neck. He looked up at her in shock.

"That's far enough, panda," she spat. "How dare you intrude on this sacred hall?"

The servants fluttered in. "Be careful, master. This one seems kind of loony."

The glare Tigress was giving Po went from fire-hot to sun-hot.

"I... but..." Po tried to say.

Tigress scoffed over his murmurs. "If you have no business here, I suggest you leave before I throw you out."

She took her foot off of him and turned away, to walk back to where Shifu was waiting with a scowl.

As Po watched her go, bitterness flooded his mouth. He sat up in a blur. "Wait— _Tigress, wait!_ "

She stopped and turned back to him. Po looked desperately, but he couldn't find anything familiar in her face. No respect or care or affection, no...

"You... something happened, something really wrong." Po's voice trembled. He tried his hardest to keep it steady. "The past changed... our future's different, and I'm the only one who can remember..."

Tigress scoffed again and looked over at the geese. "You were right. Steer clear of him, he'll wander off to bother someone else soon enough."

When she turned away again, Po had had enough. He crawled forward, as quickly as he could, and grabbed her paw.

_"Listen!"_ Po yelled at her. She looked down at him, now with nothing but coldness on her face. "Once, I was part of your team. I was a master too, and you weren't a haughty jerk anymore. We were friends, more than friends... we were..."

Tigress sneered down at him. "You need to learn the difference between reality and dreams. As if _I_ would ever give a second thought to someone like you."

Each word cut through one of Po's heartstrings. Tigress wrenched her paw out of his grip.

"Get out, panda. You're disgracing us all."

Her expression hardened into something Po never thought he'd see. It was more than the fury she'd had just after he'd been declared the Dragon Warrior. This was pure revulsion.

She turned away one last time, and Po was too heartbroken to go after her again. He dropped his paws to the floor and felt a horrible cry start at his diaphragm and work its way up his chest.

He really wanted to scream... today was his worst nightmare—

He clamped a paw over his mouth. That was right. This was his worst nightmare, and that was all it was. It couldn't be real, because Tigress would never _ever_ look at him with such disgust.

He had more faith in her heart than that.

He straightened up, and the world around him started to swim. He looked up to the ceiling, and bared his teeth at the faint shadow of spider's legs.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that to scare me, 'master'."


	12. Chapter 12

Po came back. He was in the master's bedroom again, on his back on the floor.

Things were a little different now. The storm still raged outside, and it was still dark, but there was no more dust. The room was perfectly clean and warm, the wallpaper was no longer peeling and the drapes and bedspread looked brand new instead of mothbitten.

And the monster wasn't here anymore. In his place there was only a tall, middle-aged goat in a courtly maroon robe. He looked down on Po in shock.

Po rolled away from him and quickly got to his feet. The goat let him, too stunned to do anything else.

"No one has ever seen through the illusion I've given them before," he muttered thoughtfully.

Po raised his fists with a grin. "Yeah, well, I _am_ the Dragon Warrior. It's kind of my thing to do what's never been done before." He stood a measured step closer to the goat. "Looks like I can see you for what you are now. You're just a wimpy little creep. You're not gonna beat me, so let my friends go and I won't have to royally kick your butt."

The goat flexed his jaw, and a second later grinned again. "I wouldn't be a good hunter if I gave up after the first chase."

He threw his hooves up, and the floorboards under Po's feet turned to jelly. He yelped as he suddenly sank down to his chest, and looked up warily at the evil goat soul cannibal guy dude.

The master leered at him and stalked forward. "You know... every unfortunate visitor I've had in the past, they all had such petty fears. Heights, needles, spiders. So unimaginative! Their souls were so tasteless. But you? You and your friends, you all have such varied, deep fears. Take the Monkey, for example."

He raised his hands and a shimmering pool appeared from nowhere in the centre of the room. Po carefully stretched his neck so he could see inside.

It was Monkey, trapped under the surface.

"Monkey!" Po cried immediately. "Hey, Monkey, up here!"

His words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Monkey ignored him, too busy dealing with an elderly female of his species, whose flesh was falling off. She grabbed at Monkey's neck and he started to sob.

"Do you see?" the master hissed. "An irrational dream, certainly, but not a meaningless one! All his life, this morsel has been terrified of a moment like this, when his own kin turns on him, and he's too much of a disappointment to change things."

Po's ears fell as Monkey grew more and more upset. He looked away for a moment, resting his heart from the sad sight, but when he looked back the pool was empty.

At least, it looked so at first—when Po looked again, there was Mantis at the bottom. He was scurrying in a circle, and just as Po cried "Mantis, hey!", gigantic feet appeared all around the little bug. He dodged out of the way as fast as he could, but soon enough, a hoof caught one of his legs. He couldn't get out of the path of the next foot, and disappeared under it.

Po knew the drill the next time, but it didn't stop him from trying to call out for Viper when the water shifted and she materialised. "Hey, Viper, up here!"

His stomach turned, as before his eyes, all of her scales snapped off and floated away, in the span of seconds. The only thing he could be thankful for was that he didn't have to see what was left of her for long, as she vanished to make way for his next friend.

"Crane..." Po said weakly, knowing it was useless. He watched as dark, smoky hands came out of nowhere, holding shears and rakes, and attacked the poor bird's wings. Feathers went everywhere as Crane struggled to get away from the sharp blades, and vanished with his wings totally askew.

The master laughed at Po's expression. "You kung fu warriors like to act so brave, but no one could be more frightened of life! You're so afraid of what you might one day be—failures, forgotten, shamed, useless..."

The pool stirred again, and Po braced himself for the heartache he knew was about to hit him.

And there was Tigress at the bottom, on her knees with her face in her paws.

"Alone."

Po couldn't stand to see her like that.

"TIGRESS!" he screamed, louder than anything he'd screamed before. It had to be just wishful thinking on his part when he thought he saw her ears twitch, because in the next moment, the waters started swirling violently, and Tigress faded away from him.

Po bared his teeth at the master. "You evil little—!"

A stream of water shot up out of the pool and hit him square in the face.

His heart immediately started pounding, and his paws shook. An echo of Tigress telling him, _"get out,"_ played in his head, making him feel sick to his stomach. He quickly bent down to scrub the water off, and when he straightened up again, the master was standing right beside him.

He chuckled as Po lunged for him and his paws went right through the goat as if he wasn't there. After a second of shock, Po tried again, and another time, but the more he struggled to reach the goat, the tighter the floorboards around his chest seemed to get.

"Really existential fears you all have! I can hardly wait much longer before mealtime, but before I send you down to wait with your friends, I want you to know something."

Po was starting to find it hard to breathe as the floorboards squeezed his ribs. The goat smiled at his shortening breaths, and leaned in on Po like he was about to share a conspiracy.

"You think rejection is what you're most afraid of, but that's not the case. Maybe, in some other world, some other history, the stripy girl really did turn her back on you. But do you know... why that would really be so terrible?"

Po cringed as he opened his mouth and found he could barely take in the breath to speak. "B-because I love her. And I d-don't know what my life would b-b-be without her."

The goat pulled a face. "Not that first part. But the second? You're absolutely right. You don't know. If your greatest fear was realised, you could never know how bad it might hurt you, if you would survive it, how you could move on even if you did. Do you understand?" The master put a hoof on Po's head, and slowly pushed him down, further into the floor. "Even if it takes a different form for every person, we all share the same one fear. Fear of the unknown."

The floorboards crept up on Po's shoulders, and then his neck, and he reached out with both paws clawing at the floor, but he couldn't find the grip he needed to pull himself up. And then he couldn't breathe at all any longer.

"Even I'm afraid." The master sighed down at Po. "Hate me if you like, but I have to do this to you. What would become of me, if I didn't follow my nature? What would happen to me?"

"Obviously, soul eater, you'd starve."

Po and the master both whirled around to find Tigress, pulling herself out of the pool, soaking wet and furious.

"And do you know," she growled, "why would that really be so terrible?"

The master shook himself out of his shock, and bared his teeth at her. She did the same, and just as she tugged her last limb out of the water, the master leapt forward to shove her back in.

He misjudged how great a warrior she was. Just as he reached her, she sidestepped, and with her leg sticking out, she curled herself. In a clean and beautiful arc, her heel slammed into the back of his head. He toppled into the water, crying, _**"No!"**_

Tigress dashed to Po and shoved her paws into the jelly floorboards. She found his shoulders and dragged them up and out.

Po gasped in relief the second he could breathe again. Tigress carefully pulled his body the rest of the way out, and once Po felt that his whole body was free, he leapt on his girlfriend and gave her the tightest hug of her life.

She hissed in discomfort. "Ow... Po, that's not how you thank me for saving your life."

"Sorry," Po said, but didn't loosen his grip. "I was just..."

He was interrupted by the low moaning sound coming from the water. The two of them parted and looked back to where the master had fallen.

He was there laying at the bottom of the pool, curled in on himself.

"No... no...!" he wailed. Before Po's eyes, the master's body deflated, his fur falling out and his skin contracting into his bones. He seemed to be starving, in triple time. The water turned milky, hiding its contents from Po and Tigress' eyes—at least for as long as the water level was up. It sank down like an invisible plughole at the bottom had been fished out, and when it reached the bottom, the master was completely gone. In his place were four spluttering kung fu warriors.

"Oh, _jeez!"_ Mantis yelled. "You guys, I just had the weirdest dream ever."

"It wasn't weirder than my dream," Monkey told him, "I promise."

Crane and Viper checked their own bodies over before they looked up at the edge of the now empty pool.

"Po, Tigress!" Viper exclaimed. "What in the world happened?"

Crane answered before they could. "There was a guy here, wasn't there? An evil cannibal guy! Where is he now?"

Po smiled and turned to Tigress. He took her hand and said proudly, "He's gone, guys, Tigress saw to that."

The stripy warrior huffed. "And good riddance. He almost took all of you away."

The others climbed, scuttled or slithered up out of the pool.

"I don't know about you guys," Mantis muttered, "but I'm so ready to get the heck out of this crazy manor."

"Oh, you know it," Viper said, and pointed to the door with her tail tip. "Lead the way."

Mantis crawled over and jumped up onto the doorknob. He gave it a sharp tug and the door swung open—

To reveal the goat servant, holding a tray of what looked like delicious bread rolls, and wearing a smile so wide it was ugly.

"Ah... thank you, guests, thank you for ridding me of that master. Such an unpleasant person... he never paid me well." He raised his tray. "Before you leave to continue your journey... would you like some breakfast?"

"NO," six voices told him at once, followed by a "thank you" from Viper, who couldn't help but be polite even now. Po pushed past the goat, on the way making a mental note to bring an army of warriors to flatten this place and throw the goat in jail. The Five followed their leader, out of the room, the hall, and the manor.

"I think... overall..." Po muttered. "That place was, like, half a star. And that's only because the food was okayish."


	13. Chapter 13

The storm had calmed, the sun had risen, and neither Po nor any of his friends were going to stop until they were back home. The others were happily discussing their orders for Mr. Ping's restaurant the second they stepped into it, but weirdly enough, Po didn't feel like joining in on the conversation. Instead he held back, occasionally looking over his shoulder at the old manor that had totally failed to give them a good night's sleep.

"What's the matter?"

Po turned his head back around from the last time he looked at that evil old building. Tigress was considering him with a lot of care.

"Oh, nothing!" Po said brightly. "I'm just glad that's all over."

Tigress nodded and broke away from the others to walk with him. She took his paw in hers, and he clutched it tightly.

"You sure?"

"Of course! I was just... wondering about some stuff."

"What stuff?" Tigress asked patiently.

Po looked into her eyes. "You heard me say your name. Back when you were still trapped in the pool. Didn't you?"

She nodded. "I did indeed. It was hard to miss with the way you screamed it."

Po chuckled, though the sound quickly died in his throat. "But... none of the others heard me. You were the only one."

"Yes," she said softly. Her gaze dropped to the wet marsh grass they were trekking over. "The soul eater's illusions stopped working on me in that moment."

"'Cause you weren't afraid of them anymore," Po guessed, and Tigress' gaze shot back up to his.

"Oh, I was. But I knew nothing I saw was real. The master was right, the only real thing we fear is the unknown. All of you... all of your fears, you didn't know them. But I knew mine." Her claws dug into Po's fingers. "The master made me see my past... when Kai took the others... and when you gave yourself up to stop him. I saw what my life would've become, if you had never come back... but you _did_ come back. I remembered. So the illusion broke, in time for me to make sure it wouldn't become a reality. Not today, or any day."

Po smiled. She returned the gesture, her face as clean and brilliant as the sunshine.

"Hey. Tigress? I know your second worst fear."

She looked at him in alarm. "And what is it?"

He grabbed her around the waist, and gestured with his head down to the wet ground. "Mud bath."

"Oh no. _No._ Don't you dar—PO!"

The rest of the Five ignored the sound of a splash, growling, and Po giggling like crazy.

"Wow, you should've seen the look on your... okay, okay, I'm sorry, I just thought it might relieve the tension from—please don't—OW, Tigress, put your claws away!"

"I'm not sleeping next to you for a _month."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahhahahahaAHAPPY HALLOWEEN WAS TWO WEEKS AGO (this fic is early as heck for halloween 2k17 it's all about perspective)
> 
> I hope you liked this pg cheesy garbage, I'm gonna go work on triskele like normal now, I promise :*


End file.
